Police: 3 charged in robbery, ketchup bottle assault

3 teens in Palatine accused of assaulting boy with a glass ketchup bottle during a home invasion and robbery. (WGN-TV)

3 teens in Palatine accused of assaulting boy with a glass ketchup bottle during a home invasion and robbery. (WGN-TV)

Sally HoTribune reporter

Palatine police said they have charged three teenagers -- and are seeking a fourth -- in connection with the assault of a 12-year-old boy with a glass ketchup bottle during a home invasion and robbery.

Palatine residents Vanessa Mejia, 17, of the 1500 block of Silver Lane, and Sendi Ocampo, 18, of the 1200 block of Long Valley Lane are charged with home invasion and armed robbery, police said.

A 16-year-old girl accused of cutting the boy with the bottle is being charged as a juvenile, according to police.

The incident began around 9 p.m. on April 24, when the boy was watching television at home in the 400 block of East Osage Lane, police said.

One of the four teens approached the apartment’s front door alone and claimed to be a friend of the boy’s sister. He told her she wasn’t home and the person left, according to a police release.

That person returned to the house about 10 minutes later with the three other females and asked to use the bathroom, police said. The boy let them in and after he turned his back, the teen girl hit him in the back with the empty glass ketchup bottle that she brought with her, according to police.

“It was a pretty big cut,” said Palatine Police Sgt. Dave Weeks.

The victim was taken to Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights with multiple, non-life-threatening cuts, police said.

During the alleged home invasion, according to police, two people went into the kitchen and bedrooms. One of them stole $50, jewelry and two cell phones, police said. No one else was hurt, Weeks said.

The boy’s sister came home, found her injured brother and called police.

She was able to identify the four as former friends, police said.

Police said that two days after the attack, the three charged teenagers voluntarily went to police headquarters and gave verbal and written confessions. One suspect remains at large, police said.